The present invention relates to a new medicament which is distinguished by its properties of stimulating non-specific immunity.
The invention likewise relates to a process for the preparation of this medicament.
The present invention is intended to furnish, as a new product, a medicament which stimulates non-specific immunity and which is represented by a purified extract of bacterial origin and of a proteinaceous and physico-chemically defined nature.
It is already known, particularly from U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,290, that it is possible to obtain preparations that stimulate non-specific immunity, by phenol extraction of bacterial and particularly protoplasmic materials, particularly from Escherichia coli, this extract being freed from phenol by alcoholic precipitation. However, the described process does not permit sufficiently complete elimination of the lipopolysaccharide endotoxin, which gives rise to pyrogenic and toxic effects that prevent a true medicament from being obtained. It is true that the process of U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,290 seeks to limit contamination by the endotoxin by starting, in particular, from the protoplasm after grinding of the cells. This is not sufficient, however, to ensure a sufficient elimination, for the contamination persists even if the amount of endotoxin is relatively small.
Furthermore, this process concludes with an extract which is by definition insoluble in water. This prevents a sufficient final purification being obtained and prohibits the preparation of medicaments that can really be checked and sterilized.
The present invention thus proposes to go far beyond that teaching and to furnish a new, certain, practical medicament which can be monitored.